If you happened to come across Ted Giola’s recent thoughts on the degradation of music criticism, you might want to check out my essay on PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake‘. It’s about how the themes of the album relate to its construction but more broadly it’s an argument for a way of listening to records: one that doesn’t see songwriting/making records as some adulterated relation of poetry, composition, or live music performance, but as an art form and a tradition worthy of attention in its own right.